Idril had no idea where she was, or what she was going to do. With Iztyrr huddled up in her arms, he was managing to stay warm, but the cold rigid air was really starting to get to her. Her entire body was throbbing, from her probably frostbitten toes to her pulsing head. She looked up in disbelief, cursing as she saw snow flakes that dropped gently onto the ground. The snowflakes looked peaceful enough but soon the wind started screeching, sending them blasting into her body, seeming to permeate the outer layer of skin and freezing her to her inner core. Her cloak was wrapped around Iztyrr, and she was wearing nothing but a thin pair of pants, and a cloth summery top. She stumbled over a branch as her body began to tense up with the cold, and nearly dropped Iztyrr, who now woke up and snuggled deeper into his mother’s arms. She saw a figure in the distance and squinted to make out who or what it was. As she approached the being, she called out the best she could, although it was quiet and weak. She strained a second time and managed to belt out a shriek. The figure turned, and seeing Idril in this state, ran towards her quickly. Idril swooned, feeling herself drop into the cold. The figure emerged from the shroud of snow, catching Idril in his arms, and then sitting her down. Luckily the child managed to remain cradled there in her arms.

“You’re going to be OK. I’m going to take you back to a nearby city as soon as possible. Just hold on okay?” He quickly blurted out. She nodded her head in agreement. He took off his cloak and put it over Idril, helping her up, and took Iztyrr in his hands. He gave her the cape to tie around her ears and head. Idril was shaky, but slowly and surely lights flickered in the distance, showing signs of civilization. Idril was too faint to even show any signs of joy at making it this far. As soon as they hit the village, the elf ushered them into a house, and warmed up the fire immediately. The heat of the room seemed to revive Idril slightly, as the cold began to very slowly melt from her.

This is a portion of a story I wrote for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year. Now, I know it's not excellently written, but the point of NaNoWriMo is not beautiful writing - It's just writing for writings sake. The whole point of NaNoWriMo is that in 1 month you are to write 50,000 words, the length of a 175 page novel. This works out to being 1667 words a day. But you aren't supposed to be writing a masterpiece, the idea is to pump this novel out in the roughest form just to get it done. Then, if you like it you can go back and refine and edit and make it beautiful, and if you don't like it at least you were successful in writing something so long, and your writing ability and creativity will hopefully be improved along the way! This is entirely self motivated however, so you have to really want to do it to be successful. If you ARE successful your name gets recorded into their list to be preserved for all times!

Their description explains the point very concisely:
"National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down."

Unfortunately both years I entered I was not quite as successful as I would've liked. Last year I made it to 17k, which is the best I have done. Not even halfway. This year I am determined to do better though, and be successful in writing 50k!

One fun thing about this is that it's easy to do it with a group of friends, which is what I have always done. By entering with friends you're able to compare work and motivate each other to be successful! So if you guys enjoy story writing you should give it a go for sure! You can write about anything you want! So I challenge you all to meet the 50k deadline.

Can you do it?